Denmark, Netherlands to send F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine

The Netherlands and Denmark have agreed to supply F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine to boost its counteroffensive against Russia. President Zelenskyy met the Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen. The two leaders posed in the cockpit of an F-16. Denmark says it hopes to provide six fighter jets. Earlier in the day, he met with Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte who said his country will deliver the aircraft once the conditions are right. It's not clear how many will come from the Netherlands.

The power of the drugs mafia - Cocaine and the Netherlands

 

Organized crime in The Netherlands is flourishing in tandem with the cocaine trade. A key witness is shot dead, along with his lawyer. A journalist is murdered in downtown Amsterdam. The drugs mafia earns billions and deploys increasingly brutal tactics.

Netherlands: Police fire warning shots at Covid protesters (video)

Dutch police fired warning shots and used water cannon after rioting erupted in Rotterdam over new Covid-19 measures.

Protesters threw rocks and fireworks at them and set police cars ablaze.

Dutch reporter who exposed underworld dead after shooting

 The Dutch crime reporter Peter R de Vries, who was shot and seriously wounded in central Amsterdam nine days ago, has died.

'No Covid': A way out of the coronavirus pandemic?

 Violent protests in the Netherlands at the start of the year. People venting their anger against coronavirus restrictions demanding politicians come up with a long-term strategy to deal with the pandemic.

Are measures to stop spread of COVID-19 failing?

 

There have been running battles between rioters and police across cities in the Netherlands for several days.

Shops have been looted and smashed as people vented their anger about new COVID-19 restrictions.

It’s been nearly four decades since the Netherlands saw violence on its streets on such a large scale.

Many Dutch people have been outraged by the introduction of a curfew, the first to be imposed since the end of the second world war.

Should the Dutch ‘Black Pete’ tradition be abolished?

 

Controversial Dutch blackface holiday figure is under renewed scrutiny.

Many children in the Netherlands have grown up with the image of Black Pete, a helper for St Nicholas, an equivalent of Santa Claus.

The character is highly controversial, as the figure is usually portrayed by a white person wearing blackface makeup with exaggerated lips and an afro wig.

New York is building a wall to hold back the ocean

Staten Island recently received funding for a nearly 5-mile-long seawall to protect its coast. But the plan raises a lot of questions. We’re living in a dangerously dynamic world: Hurricanes are getting worse, wildfires are rampant in California, extreme heat is melting roads in India, and sea levels continue to rise. Will a wall really be enough to protect our coastal cities?

The Glass Wall: Isolated by Cancer (video)

A Dutch teenager records video diaries when she is locked behind a hospital's glass wall for a bone marrow transplant.

A Dutch teenager records her hopes and fears when she is isolated from family and friends in hospital for life-saving treatment.

Lydia suffers from a rare blood cancer, and her doctors decide to make the ultimate attempt to cure her with a risky bone marrow transplant.

This means Lydia has to spend more than a month locked behind a glass wall, alone.

"It is five to eleven at night and the wall has just been closed. I've hugged my dad one last time and now I'm locked in my two-by-four-metre room," she says.

Is the far-right headed for victory in the Netherlands?

Dutch voters will decide on Wednesday between two starkly different candidates and party ideologies.

The Netherlands has long been known as a country of socially liberal values.

But the recent refugee crisis and anti-immigrant sentiments have led to the popularity of far-right groups.

On Wednesday, Dutch voters will decide between two starkly different candidates and parties.

The vote is one of several taking place across Europe this year - including in France, Germany and perhaps Italy.

And it will be the first test for how well far-right candidates will do.

Latest opinion polls suggest the Dutch People's Party for Freedom and Democracy led by Prime Minister Mark Rutte, and the far-right Party for Freedom led by Geert Wilders are in a tight race.

Both advocate very different agendas.

The People's Party is progressive on social issues and fiscal austerity.

While the far-right - whose leader has called Moroccan immigrants 'Scum' - wants to close mosques and pull the Netherlands out of the European Union.

Face-off at Egypt's Press Syndicate (Video)

Egypt's Press Syndicate is under fire from the Sisi government; plus, the rise of the far-right in the Dutch media.

For the first time in its 75-year history, the Egyptian Press Syndicate has been taken to court by the state. Three senior members of the Syndicate now join numerous other journalists, dissidents and activists fighting harsh rulings that could leave them in jail for years.

Talking us through the story: Timothy Kaldas, writer and commentator; Khaled Diab, journalist and author; Mohamed Elmasry, media scholar; Marwan Kraidy, author of The Naked Blogger of Cairo.